The first time I met Shawny was on my door step, she was the first babysitter we ever had for Hunter. She came highly recommended by a good friend of ours who owns a childcare center and I immediately saw why, she was an absolute natural with Hunter. Fast forward a year or so and I responded to a request she posted on a private facebook group for breast milk for her soon to be born twins. We have since been quietly donating a little expressed breastmilk for her beautiful babies. She posted this message on Mothers Day and I was so moved, and I am again just thinking about her beautiful words. I asked Shawny if she minded me sharing this and her response was again warm and kind, she wants to “spread the word that this is an option for others” Here is what was written by Shawny on Mothers Day 2017 xxx
I‘m their Mum, but so are you.
I was only 28 when breast cancer totally fucked up my blissfully reckless youth. The prospect of starting a family was a wanted but still very distant abstraction. Faced with the possibility of losing my fertility to chemotherapy, motherhood was brought to the forefront of my thoughts. When I kept asking, through tears, if I would still be able to have children, my doctors listened and knew that saving my life wouldn’t mean much if motherhood was lost to me. When I chose to have my breasts removed, I knew there would be a later loss to grieve. When I did have my children, I wouldn’t be able to feed them. Even then, I loved them so much that the thought of not being able to give them what they needed broke my heart.
But when they came I reached out to you, shyly and humbly, to help me feed my children. You responded with pure selflessness as only mothers can. The love you have for your own children gave you love for the children of a stranger. While every one of you maintained an attitude of ‘It’s nothing really,’ it’s A LOT to us.
After my babies were born I never grieved my inability to feed them, at least not as strongly as I thought I would. They had something even better, even more miraculous and special. They had the love of their other mothers from all over the country. They missed out on nothing. My babies started their lives knowing pure generosity, kindness and aroha.
So on my first Mother’s Day, I want to say thank you to all of my babies’ beautiful mothers. Thank you for having enough love in your hearts to help us through. Mana wahine xxx aroha nui from all of us xxx
Such a beautiful read! And the beautiful giving of mothers to a mother… Simply heart warming xx
Awww thanks so much Sus, pretty amazing to be a part of it 🙂 xxx